The show begins with Mary trying to rush to work, as she's late. Despite this, her self-absorbed friend, Phyllis, stops her to talk about a 'small favor'. This favor is to get Ted Baxter to talk to Phyllis' social club...TONIGHT! This is a pretty obnoxious thing to do, giving her such little notice. Still, Mary is easily manipulated and insists on being 'nice' that she agrees...not anticipating the problems this lecture would create. Ted, to put it mildly, is NOT a rousing success and this in turn results in him losing his confidence and being even WORSE at his job...if that's possible! So, it's up to Mary to fix things.
This is a cute episode and is the first to really feature Ted. It works well and is well worth seeing....though I really would have loved to see an episode where Mary shakes or otherwise throttles Phyllis!